An age-old and recurring problem is effectuating contact between a party and an entity wishing to call or otherwise contact the party. Perhaps ideally, the contacting entity (hereinafter, ‘caller’) would place a telephone call or the like to the [called] party, the called party would answer the placed telephone call instantaneously if not within a matter of moments to establish the desired contact, and the caller and called party could communicate regarding some matter of interest. Notably, however, most any called party is not always available to answer all calls instantaneously or even momentarily. For example, the called party simply may not want to answer calls, such as for example if on a vacation or at a family event, among other things, or the called party may be occupied by other matters. Accordingly, it is known that such a called party may employ a business organization that provides answering services or the like (hereinafter, ‘an answering service’) to answer calls from callers when the called party is not immediately available.
As should be understood, with such an answering service, a call to the called party is forwarded therefrom to the answering service by appropriate means when the called party is not available to answer such call or the like, and the answering service may perform a range of answering duties on behalf of the called party. For example, upon answering the call on behalf of the called party, the answering service may let the caller know when the called party is scheduled to be available, or may collect information so that the called party can return the call at an opportune time. Likewise, the answering service may perform an assessment regarding the nature of the call from the caller and based thereon may perform a range of actions. Thus, the answering service may determine that a relatively more serious matter requires more immediate action from the called party, in which case the answering service may attempt to contact the called party as soon as possible by appropriate means. Correspondingly, the answering service may determine that a relatively less serious matter requires less immediate action from the called party, in which case the answering service may only create a message for the called party to be collected thereby at a later time.
Notably, the answering service may be compensated, most likely by or on behalf of the called party, based on any of a number of arrangements. For example, the answering service may charge a flat rate for answering calls on behalf of the called party, or may charge a per-call rate for answering each call on behalf of the called party. In addition, the answering service may charge additional fees for additional services provided, may charge extra fees if answering a particular call is deemed particularly complex or noteworthy, may charge a reduced fee if an answered call is addressed relatively easily, and/or the like.
It is to be understood that in at least some situations, an answering service acts not only to answer calls on behalf of a called party, but also as a buffer or shield between the called party and at least some callers. In doing so, for example, if the caller is determined to be a friend or relative or the like of the called party, the answering service may handle the caller in a more favorable manner. Likewise, if the caller is determined to be a business acquaintance or potential business acquaintance or the like of the called party, the answering service may also handle the caller in a more favorable manner. Conversely, if the caller is determined to be a stranger or a person acting in an unfriendly manner to the called party or the like, the answering service may handle the caller in a less favorable manner. Likewise, if the caller is determined to be an unwanted salesperson, a telemarketer, an entity deemed to be potentially dangerous, or the like, the answering service may also handle the caller in a less favorable manner. As should be understood, then, the answering service is the initial public face of the called party to the caller, and can act on behalf of the called party to handle at least some less-favored calls (hereinafter ‘junk calls’) so as to avoid bothering the called party with such junk calls.
Notably, an answering service may focus on a particular core clientele of called parties as clients. For example, one kind of answering service may focus on funeral professionals, including funeral directors and the like, while another kind of answering service may focus on doctors and the like, and yet another kind of answering service may focus on lawyers and the like. As may be appreciated, each such clientele can have specialized answering service needs. For example, a caller to a funeral director may be experiencing the loss of a loved one and therefore the funeral director may require the answering service to act with heightened attentiveness and dignity. Likewise, a caller to a doctor may be suffering from a malady and therefore the doctor may require that the answering service contact such doctor with all deliberate speed. Similarly, a caller to a lawyer may be looking for an initial consultation that could lead to a substantial amount of business for the lawyer, and therefore the lawyer may require the answering service to treat the caller with the utmost respect so as to not give the caller a reason to seek another lawyer.
Typically, upon a particular client engaging an answering service to answer calls therefor, the answering service engages one or more telephone service providers or the like to effectuate forwarding of telephone calls or the like from the particular client to the answering service, particularly in a manner deemed necessary and/or advisable by the particular client. Such engaging and such forwarding services are generally known and need not be set forth herein in any detail other than that which is provided. Generally, the forwarding may occur on any appropriate basis, including the time of day, whether forwarding has been positively engaged or disengaged, whether the particular client has selected a particular call for forwarding, whether a call has rung a predetermined number of times, whether a phone or phone system of the particular client is off, or the like.
Notably, the answering service may answer a call on behalf of a particular client or type of client according to a predetermined procedure or ‘script’ that has been established for the particular client or type of client. As may be appreciated, the script can be quite involved, and can tend to cover a wide range of subjects, according to the answering needs of the particular client or type of client. Importantly, with the use of such a script, information can be collected from a particular caller calling a particular called party according to the script and entered into an appropriate database or the like for later retrieval and use, as is generally known.
Typically, the answering service would, based on such a script, collect all information as dictated according to the script, then would terminate the call, perhaps with an assurance that the called party would return the call, and then would attempt to contact the called party. Although by no means necessarily, the called party can be contacted by way of a predetermined mobile telephone line, landline telephone line, pager, mobile electronic mail device, desktop electronic mail device, mobile electronic texting device, desktop electronic texting device, or a combination thereof, or the like. Alternately, if the call from the called party is of some urgency, or if the script requires, or the like, the answering service may immediately attempt to contact the called party before the script has ended.
As was alluded to above, certain calls may be classified as junk calls from nuisance callers. More specifically, such nuisance callers may in fact be unwanted salespersons, telemarketers, entities deemed to be potentially dangerous, or the like, where such certain callers/nuisance callers are likely not welcome. At least some attempts have been made to regulate such nuisance callers and/or prevent such junk calls. Nevertheless, nuisance callers and junk calls have not disappeared, and in fact such nuisance callers have become more clever in devising ways to issue forth their junk calls.
In one particular scenario, a nuisance caller may target a particular group of individuals or other entities for a sales pitch by collecting data regarding the entities of the particular group, including a telephone number corresponding to each such entity. For example, if a nuisance caller wishes to sell a particular good or service to funeral directors, the nuisance caller may obtain the telephone number for each and every funeral director, perhaps in a particular region or even over the entire country. Based thereon, then, the nuisance caller would typically employ automated equipment to dial each telephone number so as to call the corresponding funeral director/called party, and for each answered call the automated equipment may then connect the answered call to an associate who would then attempt to deliver the sales pitch and thereby sell some product or service.
Typically, most if not all called parties, be they funeral directors or otherwise, have no interest whatsoever in the sales pitch from the nuisance caller. Hence, the call from the nuisance caller would generally be considered to be an aforementioned junk call. As is generally known, then, a called party almost never appreciates receiving such a junk call, and in fact many called parties go to great lengths to avoid receiving such junk calls. In particular, many called parties sign up on various do-not-call lists, screen calls, and/or employ caller identification services among other things in an effort to avoid receiving such junk calls.
Notably, if a particular called party employs an aforementioned answering service, the answering service may screen calls on behalf of the called party to prevent the called party from receiving junk calls. However, if the nuisance caller is continuously placing junk calls to multiple called parties, and the multiple called parties all employ the same answering service, such answering service may become overwhelmed by answering all the junk calls from the nuisance caller for the multiple called parties that employ such answering service. Moreover, if the answering service charges a particular called party employed thereby on a per call basis, and if the nuisance caller repeatedly places junk calls to the particular called party, the repeatedly placed junk calls may result in such particular called party owing a substantial amount of money to the answering service for the answered junk calls.
Accordingly, a need exists for a system and method for allowing an answering service to detect and respond to so-called junk calls from so-called nuisance callers. In particular, a need exists for such a system and method that dynamically shields against such junk calls from a nuisance caller to called parties that all employ the same answering service. Specifically, a need exists for such a system and method where the answering service detects multiple incoming calls from a particular caller within a specific time period and based thereon identifies the particular caller as a nuisance caller issuing forth junk calls, and thereafter flags calls from the nuisance caller for special handling. Accordingly, the answering service need not expend further efforts to deal with the junk calls and the clients of the answering service are not charged thereby for dealing with the junk calls.